Yep noisy as hell but not all of them i went throu few deltas and some san ace , from 3000->2800->2600-> to finally 2100 hit the sweet spot that i could tolerate ,no whining noise just "shhhh" wind noise , almost same noise as my scythe 1900rpm slipstreamer, had one ace RPM controlled but once you throttled it down to 2100rpm it made lame noises, love this fixed speed however.
Now that i think about it , its not realy worth it , replacing it with 1600rpm would suffice , only linpack/prime gets cpu hot enough to need so much air. Will be my next rebuild project.

All fans have dust collector's to, that cuts airflow somewhat but significantly less dust to worrie about, case is kinda ugly but meh.
Noise damping insulation was experiment , it helps but some noise still escape thro front panel so that idea didn't work to well :P probably not worth the cash.

No offence, but this is why I take review sites over the top perception of noise over enthusiast users. I know what a delta 120x38mm fan sounds like at 2000rpm, my mate used to have one, it's a fair bit more noticable than my 120x25mm fans at 1900rpm and even they're way louder than what I'd like. What's more, with a setup like that, It's no surprise at all that the card doesn't run too hot.

I think people need to read reviews and realise that what they say applies to very picky people but not exactly those looking for an all out silent HTPC. Gague how you will receive the noise from there extreme opinions rather than someone saying it's "bearable" when they have a much higher tolerance than you. Don't take this as some sort of attack, I just don't get why people here hold enthusiast user subjective feedback over review findings when it comes to noise and to a lesser extent heat.

That said, glad it's not above your noise and heat tolerence, most people with no compromise gaming rigs will probably be in the same boat, but there are others who need an all round PC too.

No offence, but this is why I take review sites over the top perception of noise over enthusiast users. I know what a delta 120x38mm fan sounds like at 2000rpm, my mate used to have one, it's a fair bit more noticable than my 120x25mm fans at 1900rpm and even they're way louder than what I'd like. What's more, with a setup like that, It's no surprise at all that the card doesn't run too hot.

I think people need to read reviews and realise that what they say applies to very picky people but not exactly those looking for an all out silent HTPC. Gague how you will receive the noise from there extreme opinions rather than someone saying it's "bearable" when they have a much higher tolerance than you. Don't take this as some sort of attack, I just don't get why people here hold enthusiast user subjective feedback over review findings when it comes to noise and to a lesser extent heat.

That said, glad it's not above your noise and heat tolerence, most people with no compromise gaming rigs will probably be in the same boat, but there are others who need an all round PC too.

When I saw the case pic with airflow diagram that DVS posted for us, I was thinking the same exact thing.

I have an Antec 900 and my 120mm fans are @ ~1400 rpm any faster and they annoy the hell outta me.

I have my 5850 set @ 32% fan speed as this is the highest I can set it that I do not hear it above the whisper of my case fans. With this in mind; My card idles @ 38'C and loads up fully @ 62'C, gaming it stays mid to high 50's.

I wish I would hear something. I have nothing and it still says "Product not yet released" on my order. This sucks.

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Operator at Halliburton Production EnhancementFormerly Serving The U.S. Marine CorpsNot As Mean, Not As Lean, But Still A Marine0331Ramadi 2006, 22 MEU 20073rd Battalion 8th Marines WPNS CO"Marines I see as two breeds, Rottweilers or Dobermans, because Marines come in two varieties, big and mean, or skinny and mean. They're aggressive on the attack and tenacious on defense. They've got really short hair and they always go for the throat."RAdm. "Jay" R. Stark, USN; 10 November 1995

Don't take this as some sort of attack, I just don't get why people here hold enthusiast user subjective feedback over review findings when it comes to noise and to a lesser extent heat.

People take enthusiast feedback over reviews, because they are also enthusiasts. I mean, who but an enthusiast is even thinking about buying a 480 in the first place? Also, who puts a top of the line gaming card in an HTPC or is picky enough to think that things like that should even enter the equation when talking about bleeding edge graphics cards?

Personally, I take subjective feedback of gamers over reviewers when it comes to games, and I do the same when it comes to hardware, or even friends when it comes to movies, because these people are more likely to be of the same mindset.

Besides, it's not exactly like the 200 series of cards were very quiet or very cool. It makes complete sense that people with experience with those cards would have no problems with the 400 series. Hell, my 295 was every bit as loud and hot as the 480 using manual fan speeds, which everyone who uses a 200 series card does anyway.

Anyway, my 480 will be here later today, and I'll post some noise/temp figures when I get it. My case is pretty typical (Tsunami) with only one front 120mm fan, two 120mm in the back and an 90mm on the side, nothing crazy, no deltas, etc. I don't expect it to be any louder/hotter with the 480 than it was with my 295, but we shall see.

Encountered some kind of bug today , fan did not kick in stayed at 44% and GPU got up to 110'C setting manual 68% fan with evga precision fixed the problem .
But scary bug none the less, was playing Supreme Commander Forget Alliance.

Anyway, my 480 will be here later today, and I'll post some noise/temp figures when I get it. My case is pretty typical (Tsunami) with only one front 120mm fan, two 120mm in the back and an 90mm on the side, nothing crazy, no deltas, etc. I don't expect it to be any louder/hotter with the 480 than it was with my 295, but we shall see.

Well, my 480 arrived a little while ago, and while not going to throw out a bunch of benchmarks, I will report on a few things.

First, this card is absolutely quieter and cooler than my 295, without a doubt. It idles at 44°C which is about what any 200 series card idles at.

Furmark, which made my previous card hit the high 90's or higher at 100% fan speed, got no higher than 85°C @ 100% fan speed, and 90°C @ 85% fan speed. Furmark is also the worst case scenario that your card will ever see.

I looped the Heaven 2.0 benchmark for about 30 minutes and at the end the highest temp was 81°C @ 75% fan speed.

Crysis, which regularly hit high 80's on my last card at max fan speed, hit a max of 79°C @ 77% fan speed, which is incidentally the level at which i can finally hear the fan ramp up.

Battlefield: BC 2 hit a max of 77°C @ 73% fan speed.

Real Temp shows zero difference in my CPU temps from my last card to this card. It hasn't increased my case temps a single bit.

As I mentioned before, my case is a pretty typical case, with only four fans. I have a PC Power and Cooling 910 PS, X58 SLI mb, i7 920 @ 3.8ghz, 6 gig of DDR3 @ 1600mhz, two HD's and a DVD drive. The fan on the 480 has to ramp up to 77% before i can even hear it over the rest of my computer. My case sits about 2 feet to the right of me and below on a little shelf in my computer table designed for this so maybe that helps. I also like to keep my house nice and cool, so it's a comfortable 72°C in here right now, which is how it will stay until next winter.

Are these cards as cool and quiet as Ati's latest offerings? Not by a long shot, but they aren't really any worse than the last generation of Nvidia cards either. People have blown this so far out of proportion it's ridiculous.

Anyone who had no problems with Nvidia's last generation of video cards (200's) will have absolutely no problem with the 400 series of cards either.